Anniversary
by Dandesun
Summary: Scott and Jean celebrate their first wedding anniversary.


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Disclaimer and Notes: The characters in this story do not belong to me but Marvel isn't even using them right now so I'm helping myself. This is a non-profit venture. I know that goes against my American capitalist pig tendencies but everyone has an off day.

Marvel Time being what it is I can't really say that Scott and Jean have celebrated their first wedding anniversary. But since they haven't seemed to I figured I'd go ahead and do this. This is alternate continuity. Scott and Jean are back in the boathouse after returning from Alaska. Hank and Bobby are also residing in the mansion again. Since they're really the only ones that get mentioned in the story they're all I'm worried about.

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Warning: This story has an extremely high sappy content. It's Scott and Jean being madly in love and celebrating their first anniversary. If you have a problem with people reflecting on being in love then you might want to skip this. And no, I'm not newly in love, or oldly in love, either. My Muse beat this out of me - so maybe she's got a crush on someone. I think it's Scott. Too bad he's already married.

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Anniversary

Scott had finished repairing the rowboat that morning. As the sun set he took her for a ride around the lake and made a brave attempt at serenading her with "Isn't She Lovely" before giving up and kissing her instead.

She still wasn't sure which she had enjoyed more.

After the boat ride they returned to the house to find a candlelight dinner waiting for them along with a giant pyramid of toilet paper.

She had burst out laughing and asked who was responsible for them.

Scott only smiled and shrugged. When she laughingly threatened him if he didn't tell her he suggested the Anniversary Fairy. "After all," he reminded her, "one year is paper."

She figured Bobby and Hank were behind the pyramid. She had suggested they tee-pee Bobby and Hank's rooms in retaliation. He hummed lightly at that and told her that Bobby and Hank's rooms weren't exactly the anniversary locations he had thought of but he could always be persuaded.

She persuaded him.

After they got dressed she got them both into Bobby's room and they made quick work of it. They mummified everything trying to keep quiet but bursting out into giggles when they found something new to wrap up. Then they did the same to Hank's room.

They got back to the house and laughed and kissed and laughed some more and kissed a lot more. Then he gave her a present.

It was a gold necklace with a large oval fire opal pendant.

She had gazed at it in breathless wonder as he explained his choice.

"Everyone always thinks emeralds for you," he had said. "I don't think I can get anything to really match your eyes. I wouldn't want to." He took the jewel box as she held the necklace up to admire it. "Then I thought rubies, but they didn't really seem to fit. I saw that pendant and knew it was perfect." He took it from her and clasped the chain around her neck. "I just knew it was perfect for you."

She kissed him and thanked him and exclaimed over it and kissed him again. Then she gave him his present. It was an album of photos and mementos from their lives together. The menu and the ticket stub from their first "official" date. Pressed flowers, pictures, postcards, and other little things that set them laughing and remembering.

Their dinner had long since gone cold.

They didn't care.

They had ice cream instead and made love and whispered to each other in the dark and finally fell asleep entwined together. She woke up a while later.

Now, she looked at her husband and sighed softly in the dark.

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Everyone always says how lucky you are to have me, she thought. _They haven't got a clue._

They don't see me the way you do. They see a beautiful woman but they only see what I let them see. You see what I really am.

How ugly I can be. How petty, how small and cramped.

You love me anyway, even because of it. You told me that your expecting me to be perfect was probably the dumbest thing you could do. You said I didn't deserve that kind of pressure and I wouldn't be able to be perfect anyway. You said if I weren't perfect I'd never swear again and you said you'd miss that.

You're crazy... God, I love you.

You opened yourself up to me completely even though you've been hurt so many times by so many people, including me. You sang to me out on the lake. You sang to me, you tone-deaf fool.

She stifled a giggle. _I loved every second of it._

It makes me so angry when people look at us and wonder how in the world you managed to win me. It makes me so angry when the others joke about how you don't have feelings. It makes me so angry I want to shove them through the nearest wall.

Are they blind?

How can they not see how you always make time for them? No matter what happens if they need you, you're there. How can they not see how important you are to them. Didn't they realize how frightened they were of losing you when that bastard planted a bomb inside of you? And they weren't frightened just because they might lose Cyclops, the leader of the X-men. They were afraid of losing you, Scott Summers.

Who will be there for us if Scott dies? How can we survive without Scott?

I was so afraid for you, baby, you'll never know how much. I didn't want to breathe without you. You kept telling me what to do so that you wouldn't hurt anyone else when the bomb went off. You kept telling me to move you, you jerk! I didn't want to hear you talk that way. I didn't want to think about what to do except save you. And if I couldn't save you... did you think I'd leave you to die alone?

Didn't you promise me when we married that we would never be alone again? Did you think I'd forget that because of a little thing like a bomb?

We saved you though and even though we left for awhile everyone knew we'd come back. They knew you'd come back because you'd never leave them. We can always count on you, Scott, to be there for us.

And they say you're the lucky one.

You know, you would have been proud of me during that whole mess with the bomb. I was very brave and stoic. I was very 'get the job done and then worry about it'. After you were okay Hank came to keep an eye on you for a while. I went out to the far end of the lake and cried and cried and cried.

I cried because I was relieved, because I was scared, because I was angry. Mostly I cried because I loved you. I loved you and you were going to be okay.

When I put on the Phoenix costume I knew you didn't like it. You did so much to let me know that you didn't love me because I was Phoenix or Phoenix was me or whatever. I know I was insecure about that when I came back. How could you not love Phoenix, after all? She was so powerful and beautiful and eternal. I felt like a worm in comparison. But she'd killed herself. And right in front of you, the bitch, how cruel was she? And then Madelyne came along.

She sighed again pressed her hand to Scott's chest. _You were a wreck in those days, hon, an absolute wreck. You didn't know which red head was coming or going and you were just trying so hard to keep it together. You were coming apart at the seams. And I didn't make things easy on you, did I?_

Did I ever tell you how sorry I was about that? I mean, I was dead for all you knew. Dying was the easy part, it's the ones we leave behind that have it rough. And then I came back and gave you grief over trying to live without me.

See what I mean about being petty?

It took a long time for me to realize that you didn't love Phoenix because she was so powerful. You loved her because she was me.

Simple, isn't it?

Oh, Scott. My Scott. You aren't always a prize, you know. You're moody and picky and you and Bobby get stupid during hockey season. You have a tone to your voice that drives me crazy sometimes. The 'I know better' tone. You never make the bed. And you make fun of X-Files.

I wouldn't trade you for the universe.

You want to know why?

She brushed his hair back from his forehead. _Because you have a wonderful laugh. You eat ice cream straight from the container. You have ticklish toes. You cry when you watch _Dumbo_ and _Bambi_. You can dance the samba. You like Dean Martin better than Frank Sinatra. You pick wildflowers for me by the side of the road. You're the most forgiving person I know. You have the entire collection of A.A. Milne books. You still believe in the Professor's Dream and you still try to make it real._

And you love me in ways I never thought anyone could love me. And because of it, I learn how to love better and truer and stronger.

Oh God, Scott. I love you so much.

He stirred then, taking her by the hand and kissing her fingertips.

"I love you too, Jean."

She laughed and wiped away tears she hadn't realized were slipping down her cheeks. She curled against him and kissed him, then kissed him again. "Happy Anniversary, Slim."

"Happy Anniversary, Red."


End file.
